Russian Feminist Blogger Charged With Inciting Hate Toward Men

A Russian feminist blogger has been charged with inciting hatred toward men on social media, less than two weeks after she told rights organizations she was being investigated for extremism.

A self-described radical feminist, Lyubov Kalugina warned the SOVA Center anti-extremist group in late August that she was subject of a pre-investigation check into her social media posts after an anonymous man had complained that her posts insulted him as a male.

Her case is part of a growing trend of tough anti-extremism laws applied to social media posts. Until recently, prosecutions were rarely applied to gender-related posts, the MBKh news website citedrights groups as saying.

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“Criminal charges have been brought against Kalugina under Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code,” the Omsk branch of the Investigative Committee told the local news website Gorod55.ru on Wednesday.

Kalugina faces up to 5 years behind bars under Article 282, which bans the “incitement of national, racial or religious enmity.”

Russian activists, social networks companies and even legislators have criticized anti-extremism charges which they say sweep up ordinary users who posted insensitive texts or images on their social media pages.